A woman who lived in an Iowa apartment building that partially collapsed on Sunday afternoon was freed – but only after rescuers determined one of her legs would need to be amputated to pull her from the rubble.
Quanishia "Peach" Berry and her wife Lexus Berry had been running toward the door of their fourth-floor apartment, but the apartment had disappeared, and Lexus ran by herself to a stairwell.
"The moment that we hit the door, it started to shake and rattle and literally — it all just happened in the blink of a second – the floors caved in, like collapsed," Lexus Berry told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "So as the floors were falling, and she was falling four stories down, there were still two stories above her falling and two stories falling above me. It was all crumbling."
It took hours to find Peach Berry, and Lexus Berry gave consent for her leg to be amputated in order to pull her free.
Doctors removed the amputated leg and rushed her to the hospital.
"It’s definitely something that’s like a miracle that she’s here," Lexus Berry said. "Due to the circumstances, they had to make a judgment call. And that’s the best thing for her, honestly, because she’s still here."
There were 53 tenants in the Davenport building, police say. Five residents remain unaccounted for, according to officials, and two of them are possibly still stuck under the wreckage of the structure.
Fire Marshal James Morris has said there will be an investigation into what caused the collapse.
While a crew searched parts of the building again after 52-year-old Lisa Brooks was saved on Monday, no additional human activity was detected. Several animals were rescued in that operation.
Authorities have said that the building is continuing to shift, and they need to bring it down, but they think any effort to find remains in the debris pile could cause the rest of the structure to collapse.
In an update on Facebook, the city said Wednesday that an engineering firm was on site, utilizing a forensic LIDAR drone to assess damage to the building and its stability.
"Also on site was the property owner’s insurance firms representatives and structural engineers to complete an independent structural damage assessment," it said.
Building owner Andrew Wold released a statement dated Tuesday, his first comments since the partial collapse, saying "our thoughts and prayers are with our tenants" and that his company, Davenport Hotel, L.L.C., is working with agencies to help them.
The city filed an enforcement action against him on Tuesday, saying that he had failed to maintain the property "in a safe, sanitary, and structurally sound condition" before the collapse. The city is seeking a $300 fine, according to QC Online.
An email sent to an attorney who is believed to represent Wold was not immediately returned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
